XML sitemaps
A sitemap is a list of the addresses on your site that you want indexed, along with when each last changed. It is how you tell a search engine what exists.
What it is
An XML file, conventionally at /sitemap.xml, listing each canonical address. Larger sites split it into several files behind a sitemap index.
It does not guarantee indexing. It makes discovery reliable rather than dependent on a crawler finding every page by following links.
Why it matters
New pages and pages buried several clicks deep are the ones crawlers miss. A sitemap puts them in front of a search engine directly.
Submitting one in Google Search Console also gives you a report of which listed pages were indexed and which were not, and why, which is genuinely useful diagnostic information.
How to fix it
- Generate a sitemap. Every major platform either produces one automatically or has a plugin that does.
- List canonical addresses only. Do not include redirects, missing pages or pages marked noindex.
- Reference it from robots.txt and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Keep lastmod dates honest. Marking everything as changed today teaches search engines to ignore the field.
What good looks like
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com.au/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-08-01</lastmod>
</url>
</urlset>Common mistakes
- Listing pages that redirect or return 404, which wastes crawl budget.
- Letting the sitemap go stale after a redesign changes every address.
- Including noindex pages, which sends two contradictory instructions.
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